20 minutes to say everything that is needed
by Ayatesuri-Sama
Summary: Kind of WW3. Bulgaria is stuck in a hospital and Romania is visiting him Warning : RomaniaXBulgaria, Character death. Rating might go up during the chapters.
1. Chapter 1

"You have 20 minutes." He heard a voice behind him say, but he didn't care for that voice, all that mattered for him was the man who sat on the bed.

"Nikolai…" he whispered. Said person looked over at him, a small smile found its way on his lips.

"Hey, what brings you here?" The bandaged man said in a hoarse voice. Romania trembled; he couldn't bear to look at his friend, not in this state of health.

"Are you alright?" Romania noticed that he was lost in thought and looked over to the person who spoke. He walked over to Bulgaria and sat down at his bed. He stared at the ground, didn't dare to look at his friend.  
"Romania…?" Bulgaria mumbled and stared at his back.

"I can't believe how much this war escalated… So many nations died, so many of our countries' men died." He mumbled. Bulgaria continued to stare at him. Romania was right, the war, which started as a simple fight between two people, brought up such a horrible war.

So many people lost their lives, even a few nations were dead, disappeared. And now, close to the end of the war, Romania sat here by his best friend, who was bandaged up until the point where you could guess that not even a small patch of skin is unscarred.

Vladimir slowly turned to Nikolai. He looked him over. His whole body bandaged, the bandage around his stomach is once again seeping with blood, that once beautiful face is now marked with wounds and small parts of his skin are rotten away with the acid weapons a few nations use nowadays and those eyes… they seem so empty and dull that Vladimir wondered if Bulgaria is blind, but the focused look he received reassured him otherwise.

"I'm going to survive this, I promise. My body is already healing." He heard the other say. How could that idiot be so sure? Any normal human would have died already. Nikolai seemed to know his thoughts and sighed. "Why won't you believe me?"

"I can see you dying..." he mumbled, finally he managed to look at the other once again; tears are welling up in his eyes. No, he can't cry, not in front of him. _Not yet…_

There is still a small part that he couldn't control, all of a sudden, the Romanian hung on the other and started shake. "I don't want to lose you, Nikola, I can't lose you… I simply can't."

To say that Bulgaria was shocked is understandable. He never thought his best friend would lose his control like that.

"Vladimir. You won't lose me, even when my body disappears, I would be still there for you." Romania only whimpered. Bulgaria sighed softly.

"Promise something. If I die, keep living, move on, please. I love you too much to see you suffering."

Romania's eyes widened. "W-what?"  
"Promise me that you'll move on."  
"No… what was that you said?"  
"I lov-"  
"Romania, your time is up. He needs to rest," A voice said and dragged said person out of the room.

It had been 5 months since Romania last saw Bulgaria. Today was the last peace signature given; he could finally see him again and tell him that he loves him, too. _Finally_

But the shock came when he got back to the hospital Bulgaria was held.

"What do you mean, he is no longer here?! His house is destroyed, where could he be?" He yelled at the nurse. The nurse informed him that Bulgaria has passed away.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Popeşcu. It seemed that it wasn't just acid that his body was in contact with, but dangerous toxic chemicals, too." The nurse informed him.

_"He had no chance to survive."_


	2. Chapter 2

He didn't get it. His best friend was supposed to be dead, gone, disappeared. How was he supposed to break the news to the others? Romania stood frozen in front of the nurse, slowly processing the information.

"_he had no chance to survive."  
_

Slowly, he felt a certain wetness rolling down his cheeks, his lungs closing in on him. He was crying, grieving the dead of his closest friend.

"I'm sorry…" He heard those words being whispered. That was the last straw for him. He broke down, sobbing into his hands. He didn't know how long he sat there until he felt a hand on his shoulder, stroking over it. He knew that scent, Hungary.  
"what are you doing here?" He spluttered. Just what was that woman doing there?  
"I… got informed about Bulgaria's…" Hungary left the sentences hanging in the air since her voice seemed to crack, too. Right, Bulgaria was like an older brother to her, so she must have been suffering, too.

"I know this is hard, but you have to come home." He tried to block out her voice, but somehow it was her voice that kept him from insanity.  
"Romania?" He slowly opened his eyes and looked at her.  
"da…" He mumbled and tried to stand up, his cheeks still getting wet with tears.

_"we have to move on."_


	3. Chapter 3

It had been almost 5 years since Bulgaria's death.

5 years of grieving.

5 years of trying to forget.

5 years of _not succeeding in forgetting him._

He tried so hard to forget him, but everywhere he went, he saw memories of both of them.

The battlefield – Fighting the enemies, commanding his men, almost losing his sanity a few times, but in the end, Bulgaria was by his side. They were often quite battered and completely wounded, but in the end, they could still smile.

The bed – They used it in different ways. Either it was back then, during the Soviet Union, when they had to cuddle because of the cold that was Russia's land or for things that could happen because of a few too many drinks or because they were angry and tried to let out some steam in one or another way.

So many memories flashed before his eyes with every step he took. He felt like he was losing his mind. Maybe he did already, he didn't know.

"Hello, Romania!" He heard a familiar voice yell into his house. He remembered when he heard their voices, they wanted to drag him into a bar or something similiar, although he didn't know why.

"I'm upstairs," he replied and continued to stare at the ceiling. He didn't feel like moving. He heard the footsteps coming up the stairs. Romania didn't move when he heard his bedroom door open. The next seconds, he heard a heavy Norwegian accent.

"You have to go you sometimes, you know?" He didn't feel like it and yet, he got some clothes thrown at him.  
"Put them on and let's go. You need to stop grieving, I know losing someone you love is hard, but you have to move on. He wouldn't want you sad," Norway said and sighed softly. He could understand Romania. Losing someone so close to you is horrible. He had that experience, too, because he almost did lose Denmark back then.

"I don't care," Romania replied and rolled over. He still didn't feel like moving. Just why wouldn't they understand that?  
"C'mon pal, let's get wasted," Those guys were clearly getting on his nerves. Sadly, he knew he couldn't win against those two and they only meant well. It had been 5 years after all and yet, he couldn't let go. He sighed softly and sat up.  
"I'll be downstairs in 10 minutes."

The other two magicians frowned, but went downstairs to wait for the Romanian to come down.  
After 10 minutes, Romania came down, completely dressed. He didn't look like he hadn't slept for 5 days anymore, quite the opposite; he looked refreshed and not tired at all, only his expression told the Norwegian and the English man otherwise.

"Is it okay like this?" The question was left hanging in the air. All three men knew that this wasn't ok for the Romanian, but if he didn't stop grieving, soon, he might bring himself to death.

"Ja, you look good," Norway said and looked the other over again. England nodded his agreement and even tried to smile at the other. Romania valued the effort his Black Magic Club members put up, it shouldn't be him to crash it, so he tried to go with it.

"How about we go to the pub now?" Romania suggested. The other two shook their head and smirked slightly. They had other ideas.

Romania was cautious when the other two smirked, he went suspicious when they walked to him and he just knew they are planning something when they blindfolded him.

And now here he sat in a car, getting driven somewhere.  
"What are you guys planning?" he asked. He heard snickering from the front seats and grumbled slightly. It seems he wasn't getting any answers soon.  
It took one more hour until the car came to a stop. Romania's stomach made a backflip and he looked around, still blindfolded. He heard a door open and slam again. From the outside, he heard footsteps and he felt his car door open.  
"Arthur?" Romania asked and frowned a bit. What was going on?  
"Don't worry. Nothing bad will happen," the other said and he sighed softly. If everything comes undone, he still could use his magic. Shortly after he finished his thought, he got pulled out of the car and someone stepped up behind him, guiding him to something where loud music came from. When the blindfold was removed from his eyes, he blinked a few times for his eyes to adjust to the bright neon club. He fell silent after he recognized the shield.

A few moments passed in silence. "Are you kidding me? A strip club, seriously?" He heard the others chuckle softly. They were serious. Romania frowned, but let himself be dragged into the club. The club was dark and sticky. The music was loud and a lot of lights were flashing onto the stages where the women and men danced. The men dancing slightly put him off since he thought the others were dragging him to a 'men only' strip club where only women were dancing, but it seemed he was wrong.

It took 20 minutes to get some drinks and find some seats for them to sit in and watch the strippers dance. Romania looked bored at the dancer, they weren't interesting him. They may look good, but it wasn't the looks of…

His thoughts interrupted when a loud voice announced something. "Now, applaud for our dear friend 'Peppermint'"

Romania snorted at the name and looked at the stage amused. How good could some woman be whose name is 'Peppermint'?  
A seductive sounding song started to play and a dark figure stepped onto the stage, slowly walked to the dancing pole and when the first vocals came, the stage lit up and the figure, no the man, was visible.

Romania's eyes widened. What is _he_ doing here?

-  
Rating goes probably up because of the next chapter.. god… I feel ashamed..


	4. Chapter 4

Romania stared at the man on the stage. That couldn't be him. It just couldn't, but he looked like him. His cheeks glowed red when the dancer started his performance.  
The stripper moved in beat with the song, winding himself around the pole, grinding against it and slowly wearing less of his already short amount of clothes.

Romania's mind went blank when the stripper made direct eye contact with him. Dark olive green eyes were looking into his red orbs, making it feel like they were piercing his soul.

"It's Bulgaria," he mumbled which was barely heard by the other two nations next to him.  
"Romania, I know you miss him, but it can't be him, he is dead," Romania shook his head and pointed to the man on the stage who was still keeping eye contact with the Romanian. Confused, England and Norway looked over to the man and indeed, the man really had a huge similarity to Bulgaria. Romania spluttered a few intelligible words and blushed slightly when the man smirked.  
He thought Bulgaria was dead, gone. But now he stands there, winding himself around the pole and shedding more and more of the clothes. Romania grinned widely and when the man walked down the stage and to him, he wanted to go up to hug him.  
"What are you doing here, I thought you were dead, Bul-" he was cut short when the man decided to plant himself on his lap and started to softly grind on him. Romania blushed brightly. He knew that Bulgaria said that he loved him, but clearly didn't except that.  
"U-Uh, dragă, what are you doing..?" The dark haired man only smirked seductively and slowly started to grind stronger onto the other, then standing up and practically dancing on his lap. Romania sucked some air in and watched him closely. What was he doing?  
It took him 2 minutes of finding out and 5 minutes to feel certain hotness in his groin area.  
"Want to come with me~?" The other whispered huskily into his ear. Romania shuddered.

"Isn't this too fast, my dear?" he spluttered and blushed more. The stripper moved his head back and frowned at him.

"Listen, I only try to do my job here. If you searched for someone to love then you're certainly wrong here," was all the other said and walked into the back room.

"What was that right now?" England asked after a few minutes of silence.

"He… I don't know. It… seemed like he didn't know me anymore…" Romania's voice was slowly starting to crack again. Now that he probably found the other again, his friend doesn't remember him.

"I'm sorry, Romania," He nodded and trembled slightly. "I lost him again…"  
The other two protested, but Romania waved them off with a gesture of his hand. He stood up and followed the Bulgarian. He wasn't going to give up so soon.

He sneaked away from the security and into the changing room for the strippers. A certain anger and frustration built inside his chest when he saw the other flirt with some of the other strippers.  
"You!" he growled and stomped over, turning the Bulgarian around. "You're coming with me, whether you like it or not!" and with that, Romania grabbed the other, threw him over his shoulder and stomped outside, the other two magicians following him.  
"Let me go! This is kidnapping, freak!" the man on the Romanian's shoulders yelled and struggled strongly and yet, the grip Romania had on him didn't loosen.  
It took the quartet about 30 minutes to get back to Romania's house and 10 more minutes to get the Bulgarian inside.  
"What the hell do you want from me? You do know it's illegal to kidnap people, right?" Romania ignored him and just stared at him.

"I can't believe it… They said you're dead, but now you're here and quite alive," he whispered.  
"What? What are you talking about? And who are you anyways?" the Bulgarian continued to question. Romania just continued to stare. He slowly moved forward, pulled the other up into his arms and kissed him deeply. Silence erupted. After a while, Romania broke the kiss.  
"I-I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me I just had to-," he started to ramble frantically. The stripper could only stare, not being able to progress what just happened.

"Why did you kiss me?" he finally breathed. Romania froze and looked down. It was true, Bulgaria didn't remember him and yet he had the undeniable urge to kiss him.

"I don't get you… First you wanted 'love' from me, then you kidnap me and now you kiss me. I already told you, if you search for the true love, you may search somewhere else," those words hit Romania hard. He still wanted Bulgaria to remember him.  
"I… don't search for the true love, but I've got a few questions to you. Could you answer those for me?" the stripper frowned, why should he answer these questions that man got for him? He doesn't even know him and yet, he had a feeling that told him to answer those questions. "Fine…"  
Romania's face light slightly up. "Really? Thank you so much!" he grinned widely at him, but got serious a few seconds later.  
"Okay… Where are you from?"  
"I'm from Bulgaria obviously. Otherwise I wouldn't speak Bulgarian fluently, have the Bulgarian traits and have a heavy Bulgarian accent."  
"Should have known… Why did you choose stripper as your job?" at this point, the Bulgarian man frowned a bit and seemed to be thinking.

"I don't know, to be honest. Fast money I guess," he mumbled, his gaze lowering. Romania frowned at that, Bulgaria sounded unsure of himself.  
"You don't really remember your past, do you?" the other shook his head.

"Is there something you remember?" he kept on nagging; he needed to know if there is something the other remembered.  
"As far as I have known, I worked in that strip club."  
"I've got only one question left. What is your real name besides 'Peppermint'?"  
Bulgaria blinked a few times, confused. "Why'd you ask?"  
"Just answer my question."

"They call me Nikolai Petrov."


	5. Chapter 5

It took Romania almost one hour to get what the other said. He asked again and again and yet he always go the same answer.  
"Dude, you're pissing me off, just stop asking me. I already told you, my name is Nikolai Petrov."

Romania closed his eyes, almost breaking down. He still didn't get it. The nurse informed him that Nikolai died back then, but now he is here, standing before him. Romania took a deep breath. "Nikolai, da..? What else can you tell me about you?" Nikolai's eyebrow twitched and he sighed softly, starting to tell the other about him not remembering his past or how he woke up in that night club. The only thing Nikolai left out was the fact that he felt kinda empty since then. The conversation between Nikolai and Romania took about 2 hours, so it was 2 hours later when England announced his presence next to Norway.

"Ah, sorry guys, I completely forgot about you… I'm so sorry I ruined your evening, but you know I…" Romania trailed off; he didn't need to say it out loud - Norway and England understood anyways. The other magicians chuckled softly, bidding their farewell and leaving. Romania looked after the others, a hint of a small smile on his lips. He turned back to Nikolai.  
"Do you want to return to the strip club?" he asked, but the expression on Nikolai's face told him everything, he never wanted to return there. He sighed softly, nodding.  
"It's quite late, we should go to bed. I'll lend you something you can sleep in and I have a guest room for you," he told the other and prepared everything. Nikolai quietly followed, going to bed without any complains.  
The next morning was awkward for both of them. When Romania woke up, he found himself to be hugging someone tight to his body. He blushed darkly when he noticed that it was Nikolai. Apparently, Nikolai climbed into his bed during the night and out of reflex from the time during the Soviet Union, he hugged the person close to him. Romania tried to move away before Nikolai woke up, but found that the mentioned person clung to him. He sighed softly and settled back down, taking his time to look over the others body. Luckily, the other didn't wear a shirt to sleep, so he had a good view over the upper body. Just like he noticed it, the upper body was full of scars and burn marks. He leaned over Nikolai to look for a certain scar he made back then, sadly Nikolai decided to wake up in that moment.  
"What do you think are you doing, pervert?" a voice under him said. Romania's eyes widened and he gulped slightly, sensing the dangerous tone in that voice. He tried to stammer and apology, but the Nikolai sighed softly.

"I guess I can't fight that habit. I guess it's my fault. I don't know why, but I tend to crawl into other person's beds," Romania sighed softly and leaned back. 'Of course you do, idiot. It's because your body is used to coldness and knows how to warm itself up without you knowing. It's a habit every nation who was under the control of the Soviet Union has,' Romania thought bitterly. He sighed softly and looked back at his guest.  
"May I ask you from where do you got all of those scars?" Nikolai twitched, he guessed he hit a wound.  
"I don't know to be honest. Like I said, I don't remember much from my past and I don't think I want to. There has to be a reason I don't want to remember it," something within Romania broke. He stammered out a 'da' and stood up and got dressed. He told the other he would prepare breakfast and left. Nikolai sat on the bed, staring after the other. "What did I do wrong?"


End file.
